Revised Chronostratigraphy of Recurrent Ignimbritic Eruptions In
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Revised chronostratigraphy of recurrent ignimbritic eruptions in Dominica (Lesser Antilles Arc): Implications on the behavior of the magma plumbing system Georges Boudon, Hélène Balcone-Boissard, Clara Solaro, Caroline Martel To cite this version: Georges Boudon, Hélène Balcone-Boissard, Clara Solaro, Caroline Martel. Revised chronostratigraphy of recurrent ignimbritic eruptions in Dominica (Lesser Antilles Arc): Implications on the behavior of the magma plumbing system. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Elsevier, 2017, 343, pp.135-154. 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2017.06.022. insu-01557350 HAL Id: insu-01557350 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01557350 Submitted on 6 Jul 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License Accepted Manuscript Revised chronostratigraphy of recurrent ignimbritic eruptions in Dominica (Lesser Antilles Arc): Implications on the behavior of the magma plumbing system Georges Boudon, Hélène Balcone-Boissard, Clara Solaro, Caroline Martel PII: S0377-0273(17)30162-2 DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2017.06.022 Reference: VOLGEO 6143 To appear in: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research Received date: 14 March 2017 Revised date: 7 June 2017 Accepted date: 12 June 2017 Please cite this article as: Georges Boudon, Hélène Balcone-Boissard, Clara Solaro, Caroline Martel , Revised chronostratigraphy of recurrent ignimbritic eruptions in Dominica (Lesser Antilles Arc): Implications on the behavior of the magma plumbing system, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (2017), doi: 10.1016/ j.jvolgeores.2017.06.022 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Revised chronostratigraphy of recurrent ignimbritic eruptions in Dominica (Lesser Antilles Arc): Implications on the behavior of the magma plumbing system Georges Boudona, Hélène Balcone-Boissardb, Clara Solaroa, Caroline Martelc a Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Univ. Paris Diderot, CNRS, F- 75005 Paris, (France) bSorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 7193, ISTeP, F-75005, Paris, (France) cInstitut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO), UMR 7327 Université d’Orléans-CNRS- BRGM, Orléans, (France). To be submitted to JVGR ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Keywords: Dominica, ignimbrites, stratigraphy, 14C dating, lithology, geochemistry 1 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT ABSTRACT Ignimbritic eruptions represent catastrophic events due to the magma volume involved and the related consequences on Earth’s environment in relation with the released gases and the tephra dispersal. Dominica has been recognized as hosting one of the major ignimbritic eruptions of the last 200 ky in the Lesser Antilles arc, called the Roseau Tuff. But more recent works have evidenced several pumiceous events instead of a single large one. Here we propose a revised chronostratigraphy of the explosive activity that occurred in the last tens of thousands years based on three field trips, new 14C ages, detailed lithological and geochemical investigations, in particular a precise characterization of trace element glass chemistry. This eruptive history reconstruction is mainly based on outcrops along the coast and in the valley, since the luxury vegetation in the center of the island mostly precludes sections close to the central volcanic centers. We thus confirm that the Roseau event has been overestimated and that we may recognize five main ignimbritic events: Grande Savane, Layou (~51 ka), Grand Bay, Roseau (~33 ka), Grand Fond (~24 ka). We discuss the possible volcanic center at their origin, in addition to correlations with some Plinian events of lower magnitude that were identified in the Roseau valley and in the southern part of Dominica. This study may help to better constrain the eruptive history of the most active volcanic island of the Lesser Antilles arc, which has important implications on hazard mitigation. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1. Introduction Ignimbritic eruptions when they occur may have a dramatic effect not only due to the magma volume involved (order of magnitude of one to tens of km3) but also because of their related consequences (tephra dispersal, climatic effect) on the Earth’s environment across various temporal and space scales. In the last thousand years, few large ignimbritic eruptions have occurred. During the Minoan eruption of Santorini volcano (Greece; 3600 yrs BP) 20-30 km3 DRE was emitted and was responsible of the disappearance of the Minoan civilization (Bond and Sparks, 1976; (Johnston et al., 2014; Sigurdsson et al., 2006). For the 1257 AD Samalas eruption on Lombok island (Indonesia) 40 km3 DRE was emplaced; it has been recently recognized as an important chronostratigraphic marker through a sulfate peak identified in the polar ice core (Lavigne et al., 2013; Vidal et al., 2016). More recently, during the 1815 Tambora eruption (Indonesia) about 50 km3 DRE were emitted, and significantly impacted the climate, in particular the following year “without summer” in the northern hemisphere (Self et al., 1984). Finally, the 1991 Pinatubo eruption (Philippines) was the largest eruption of the last decades with the emission of ~5 km3 DRE, involving a global temperature drop by about 0.5°C in the years 1991-1993 (Self et al., 1993). In the Lesser Antilles arc, the volume of magma involved in most of the eruptions along the volcanic arc is relatively low (generally < 0.5 km3) as evidenced by many historical and prehistorical eruptions (Lindsay et al., 2005a). During the dome-forming eruptions of 1902- ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1905 and 1929-1932 of Montagne Pelée (Martinique) 0.2-0.3 km3 was erupted (Tanguy, 2004a). Less than 0.2 km3 of magma was erupted during the successive explosive and lava dome-forming eruptions of Soufrière of St. Vincent in 1902-1903, 1971 and 1979, and the magma involved in each of the numerous submarine eruptions of Kick’em Jenny volcano is very low (probably less than 0.05-0.1 km3). The recent and long lava dome-forming eruption 3 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT of Soufrière Hills at Montserrat (1995-2010) is an exception as in the order of 1 km3 DRE was erupted (Wadge et al., 2010). But these volumes are low compared with the magma emitted at Dominica during the last tens of thousands years. The pioneer works on the island recognized a voluminous ignimbritic eruption called “the Roseau Tuff”(Sigurdsson, 1972; Carey and Sigurdsson, 1980). This eruption, dated between 50 and 30 ka, has been thought to be responsible for the emission of ~58 km3 DRE, leading on-land to thick deposits of pumiceous pyroclastic density currents (PDC), welded in some places, and offshore by tephra fallout and by turbiditic deposits in the Grenada Basin. Recent stratigraphical investigations have evidenced that these thick deposits belonged not to a unique event but to a series of 7 eruptions dated between 50 and 20 ka (Howe et al., 2015b, 2014; Smith et al., 2013). Although the volume of the emitted products per eruption is lower than previously proposed, it still contrasts with the common estimation along the Lesser Antilles arc. Dominica is thus characterized in the last tens of thousands years by infrequent large pumiceous eruptions whereas in the same period of time, several small pumiceous eruptions (generally < 0.5 km3) (Carazzo et al., 2012; Legendre, 2012) occurred on the neighboring islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. In addition, whereas most islands of the Lesser Antilles arc only evidence one active volcano, Dominica exhibits the particularity of 4 large active volcanic centers and several others of lower of lower volume (Lindsay et al., 2005b). Dominica and the neighboring islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique concentrate half of the active volcanoes of the arc within its central part, only accounting for 1/5 of its total ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT length (Fig. 1). Thus Dominica volcanism raises the question of the genesis, storage, and eruption of such large volume of magma in a short period of time. One key starting point is to clarify the spatial and temporal relationships between the different pumiceous deposits which have not been clearly established until now. We carried out three field trips in Dominica since 2011 to study the pumiceous eruptions, focusing on 4 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT those that occurred in the central part of the island. On the basis of these recent on-land investigations, together with new 14C dating on charcoals and detailed petrological and geochemical data on pumice glass, we propose here a revised chronostratigraphy of the pumiceous eruptions in the last tens of thousands years. 2. Geological setting 2.1. The Lesser Antilles arc Dominica belongs to the Lesser Antilles arc which extends from 12° to 18° N with a particular convexity to the East (Fig. 1). Active since the late Miocene, the Lesser Antilles arc consists of 11 volcanic islands and marks the westward subduction of the North American Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate. Convergence is estimated at ~2 cm/year and is associated with a low arc magma production rate of ~3 km3/My (Wadge, 1984; Wadge and Shepherd, 1984). North of Dominica, the arc is divided into two groups of islands.